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Wednesday, January 15, 2014

O Canada!

New Year's Eve in our household usually consists of playing games as a family and praying the new year in, along with a sparkling apple cider toast. Nice and tame.

Some years the two oldsters in the family even decide to go to sleep before midnight and leave the youngsters to stay up and watch the clock. Very tame.

Well, this year was totally different! The weekend after Christmas we were on the road headed to....Canada! Can you imagine driving to Canada in the winter?!

Our friends invited us to drive up to their home for New Year's Eve. And we took them up on the offer!

This photo below was taken from our vehicle as we were approaching their farm. Actually, most of the photos were taken either inside the house or inside a van riding along since it was minus zero temps many of the days and much too cold for camera equipment to be outside: We certainly enjoyed being around the family including...playing with a sweet baby girl, attending their Sunday home church service, traveling and visiting Ottawa one afternoon, entertaining everyone with Christmas songs on keyboard and some flute playing, helping milk the cows in the barn (Jonathan), playing games on New Year's Eve, ice-skating when it was minus 12 degrees (not the oldsters though!), and experiencing hot chocolate at the famous Tim Horton's afterwards!

Here's a post full of photos showing some of our activities. First, the star of the show, little Miss Victoria, in a cowgirl hat: Jonathan, Sarah, and Tom having a fun time conversing: A kitchen scene where some good cooking and lots of activity took place: Musical interlude...Jonathan, Sarah, and Hannah playing hymns on flutes: And some Christmas songs...all the wee girls took a turn: And little Victoria was quite busy making her way to the keyboard as each girl played: Blessing takes a turn and blesses us with her playing: Jonathan talks with his good friend, Caleb, and has a good laugh: The younger cousins having a grand time together on New Year's Eve: The older girls in the kitchen: Bethany, Hannah, and Sarah:One afternoon we drove to Ottawa to see the capital of the country. The picture below shows the Rideau Canal with lots of skaters (photo credit All Tourist Attractions). When we were there, the Canal was being readied for the skaters; we saw workers preparing the ice but not skaters as shown below. Isn't that winter scene beautiful? I found someone who loves Scrabble as much as I do! A very late New Year's Eve game with Grandma: The kitchen is always a great place for folks to gather for conversation. Here's Caleb, Jordan and Mr. Y. listening intently, and Honour is helping in the kitchen: A very cold New Year's Day arrived, and it was time to head back to Virginia. But first, pictures of everyone! Here's our family in front of the tree: And a photo with both families together. I wanted to bring those smiling girlies on the back of the sofa home with me:This last photo is taken through the front car window after we're all loaded and ready to drive away. We're looking towards the farmhouse one last time. Everyone has said their good-byes and gone back inside because it's extremely cold at minus 10 degrees mid-day! Bye-bye beautiful farmhouse in the snow! We sure enjoyed Canada and the wonderful hospitality you showed to us! Thank you! We'll look forward next time to having you visit us in Virginia!

Hi Deb! I enjoyed reading this post on your visit to Canada. What a nice time you all had. The snow is really beautiful, and the skating area is so nice. I love old-fashioned skating photos and paintings. Love Scrabble, too. :) So glad you had a great visit. Have a great day!

Love it. It makes me cold looking @ the pix, though. Brrr. Of course, we've had a cold snap in NorCal...anything under 40 requires us to blast the heat, and stay under the blankets. It's all relative, I suppose.

So glad to hear that you had a lovely visit with the Yuck family! They are such wonderful hosts! And I hear that they made your favorite foods while you were there, leaving out such things as cabbage and pork! LOL! Just kidding!